


be with me so happily

by sinisterkids (400lux)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fast Food, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-30 22:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3954568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/400lux/pseuds/sinisterkids
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minseok wants the ground to swallow him up when people realise that the Chicken Guy is serenading the Burger Guy and he wants to scream, “No! Can’t you see that it’s a promotion technique?” </p><p>fast food mascots!au. (<a href="http://sinisterkids.livejournal.com/4008.html">lj mirror</a>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	be with me so happily

Lu Han’s roasting like the chicken he’s dressed as. The sun is relentless and so are the people who won’t take a damn flyer from him no matter how hard he tries to shove it up their noses. And he’s pretty sure he’s going to smell like a sweaty boy’s locker room when he takes off the stupid costume; the cherry on the cake.

“Madam, we’ve got the special Christmas value deal available this week. Here, take this!” Lu Han hands a woman pushing a stroller a flyer desperately, holding onto his last tethers of tolerance, “Chicken!”

She smiles apologetically and scrambles away to the cries of her baby at the manic look on Lu Han’s face. He rolls his eyes; happens everytime.

-

Minseok hates his job, but he’d rather relax out front (granted, in the dead heat of summer) and put as little effort and dedication as he can into handing out flyers without getting fired, than having to serve hoards of rowdy families with brats for children and sticks up their asses.

And besides, he looks sort of cute in his burger costume (according to all the cooing grannies, at least).

People are definitely more recipient to him than they are to that Chicken Guy the next shop over, who seems to be scaring children away with his mostly-hidden face.

Minseok smirks, one for Burger King and zero for KFC.

He just hopes that the other guy is sweating just as much as he is, because a) he wouldn’t wish this ‘problem’ upon anyone, but since there’s some unspoken rivalry between them, the Chicken Guy deserves it, and b) whoever lasts the longest wins, and Minseok can say for sure that he can stand the heat.

An hour later, Minseok’s shift ends and he stumbles into the glorious air-conditioned store—an oasis compared to the front—to grab his bag and sit in the freezer for a few minutes, because that’s socially acceptable when you’re forced to emit 70% of the water in your body for promotion’s sake.

Minseok takes a shortcut through the joint carpark out back and almost collapses into a red-faced guy, who is tangled up in his twisted pants and he falls in what seems like slow motion. Minseok wants to save him but it’s too late. He lies there, spread out like he’s contemplating his imminent death and he sort of looks like an out-of-breath angel with his pretty face (not that Minseok would admit).

“Sorry, are you okay?” Minseok wipes his sweaty hand on his slacks and holds it out for the guy.

“I— just, could you lie here with me?”

“Uh—”

“If I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?”

“Wh— hey, isn’t that a song?”

The guy is cackling to himself once he stands up on shaky legs. His chin almost disappears and Minseok vaguely thinks of the Chicken Guy’s terrifying expressions.

“God, I needed that. Your _face_.” His laughing trails off and he stares at Minseok, “Yo—your face. I like it.”

Minseok’s never felt more scared for his life and he’s slowly inching through the car-park but it’s not working because the creep is a fucking magnet.

“Thank you? Well, I’m just gonna go now, okay?”

“Right, sorry! I’ll see you around then.” He grins. Minseok would like his face too if he weren’t so strange, so he bids him goodbye and runs the opposite way.

Minseok steals a last glance, and sees a yellow feather stuck to the guy’s (nice) ass and then recalls the KFC logo on his shirt. Oh.

-

Lu Han’s on promotion duty again and he almost cried when his manager told him, but realised it would be the perfect opportunity to catch a glimpse of the adorable guy he met the other day, through the polished windows of the Burger King. He knows he probably shouldn’t be fraternising with the enemy but then again, Burger King’s employees had never been this cute.

He’s cheerful and doesn’t even bat an eyelash when a little girl kicks him in the shin as he absentmindedly hands her a flyer, so it’s no surprise Lu Han’s smile grows wider (and progressively terrifying) when he finds himself marginally closer to Burger King—the Burger Guy’s domain.

“Excuse me?” The slightly high-pitched voice sounds familiar.

Lu Han looks away from where he’s sneakily throwing glances into the store.

“ _Burger Guy_? You’re—” He looks adorable in his burger costume, pale round cheeks blushing prettily from the heat.

“Uh, yeah. I think you should go to your side, Chicken Guy.”

“Lu Han.” He sticks out a feathered covered hand.

“Minseok.” Burger Guy returns the handshake, looking incredibly unamused.

It seems like Lu Han didn’t even have to go all double-oh-seven to find the guy and he doesn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed that Minseok works a few metres away from but is also his designated No. 1 Enemy.

“Do you want to go out with me sometime?” Fuck rivalries, this isn’t Romeo and Juliet.

“In your dreams.” Minseok’s glaring at Lu Han, still handing out flyers like the machine he is, although most of them end up on the floor.

The conversation between the Burger Guy and the Chicken Guy has gathered a few onlookers, so Lu Han winks at Minseok and scrambles back to his territory before he gets his rejected ass fired.

He’s nothing if not patient.

-

“Minseok? Are you alright?” His co-worker Kyungsoo is waving a hand in front of his eyes, a concerned look on his face. “Do you want me to take over for you today?”

“Please.” Minseok would give anything to get out of this burger costume and away from the Chicken Guy—Lu Han, his mind offers helpfully—at the moment. Even serving unruly children.

“You’re not sick are you? I can talk to—”

“No it’s fine. I’m just a little terrified for my life, but I’m totally fine.”

“Wha—” Minseok interrupts Kyungsoo to run through promotion details with him and his co-worker puts the statement down to heat fatigue.

Minseok realised today that he had heard a few of his co-workers talking about the infamous Lu Han, who apparently went to the same university as Jongin’s older sister and threw the most epic parties ever. “He’s really nice,” Jongin had said to Kyungsoo, “I’ve hung out with him a few times on my lunch break. He buys me bubble tea!” Minseok had absolutely no reason to believe he was going to be murdered in his sleep.

Except it wasn’t fear that had Minseok running from a very persistent Lu Han, but because he couldn’t admit to himself that he found Lu Han’s sparky eyes beautiful and his persistence admirable and his collarbones so biteable. So he kept running, because that’s what a sane person would do.

Minseok’s out of practise at the counter, so when a grinning Lu Han pops up with a “Hey Minseokkie!” he almost crushes the soft serve he was filling up in fright.

“Unless you’re here to buy something, you should probably leave.” The diner’s almost empty and Minseok uses the opportunity to wipe the bench top down. Lu Han leans against it nonchalantly, getting grease on the counter from the sleeves of his uniform and Minseok hits him away with a “Yah!”.

Lu Han throws his hands up in surrender, but sits on the counter again when Minseok turns to fill up the raspberry slushie he ordered. Minseok sighs in defeat. “Anything else?”

“How about a date?”

“Do you want fries with that?” Minseok deadpans. That would be the ninety-ninth time Lu Han’s asked, including those bedazzled cologne-covered letters he found in his locker. Not that he’s counting.

“Is that a yes?” Lu Han raises an eyebrow, but the smile tugging on the corners of his mouth tells Minseok that he’s happier than he’s letting on and Minseok sort of wants to kiss him right now.

“No! I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Too late. How about I pick you up at seven tomorrow?”

“Do you even have a car?”

Lu Han smirks and slurps down the last remnants of his slushie, raspberry-stained lips wrapping around the straw obscenely as he turns to skip out of Burger King, avoiding the question. He’s just outside the door when Minseok realises, “Hey, how do you know where I live?!”

-

True to his word, Lu Han shows up in front of Minseok’s dorm room at seven sharp. Minseok had mostly forgotten about the date, buried in his text books, and it’s not like he had taken Lu Han seriously. He should’ve known. His nonchalance couldn’t explain the excited fluttering deep in his stomach.

His roommate Jongdae answers the door for him, and when Minseok hears Lu Han’s familiar voice he almost hides himself in the closet but Jongdae’s caling him over and _oh shit he looks like a mess lu han’s gonna think he’s gross oh my god what did he do to his hair, wow_.

“Hi, Minseok?” Lu Han shifts his feet, his cheeks rosy despite the look of confidence on his face.

“How were you even allowed to get up here?”

“I have friends in high places.”

Jongdae’s eyes are darting between them like he’s watching a game of tennis. “Lu Han, right? Minseok’s been really busy with coursework so forgive him if he’s not looking his best right now. Just give him a minute to get ready, yeah?”

Lu Han doesn’t get a chance to answer when the door is all but shut in his face and Jongdae’s torn between laughing at Minseok or conducting breathing exercises with him, so instead he throws him an outfit. Minseok changes quickly, still not entirely sure if this is a date—not in his mind, because it certainly is on Lu Han’s part.

When he opens the door again, Lu Han is leaning against the wall, inspecting his fingernails and he grins when Minseok walks out hesitantly.

“You look… really good.” Lu Han grabs Minseok’s hand, walking him down the corridor, because Minseok’s legs seemed to have turned into jello, “And if it means anything, I think you looked good before as well.”

-

Lu Han’s extremely nervous but he doesn’t show it as he manoeuvres an unresponsive Minseok towards the Korean restaurant near his own university, nestled in an alley-way and so hidden you might miss it.

“Jongin told me you missed having some homely traditional food, so I thought you might like this. It’s one of my favourite restaurants.”

“Jongin’s telling you things about me now?”

“How do you think I got those letters into your locker? I have my minions.”

“You really are evil,” Minseok says in amusement.

They’re interrupted by a hostess whom Lu Han is familiar with, and Minseok’s blabbering away effortlessly in Korean as she leads them to their table. He looks comfortable and content scrutinising the dimly lit restaurant and Lu Han can’t help but reach out to grasp Minseok’s hand in his own.

“Is this okay?” Lu Han asks once they’ve dug into their third dish, a comfortable banter between them.

“You’re kidding! I can’t believe I’ve never been here before!” Minseok speaks with a full mouth, “Oh, and I guess you’re alright too.”

"Is that so?"

“Maybe you should bring me here again sometime,” Minseok says with a wink.

Lu Han chokes on his kimchi.

-

The hotter days have more customers than ever flowing into Burger King, looking for a cool place to rest and grab a cheap, greasy lunch. It’s a win-lose situation because the more customers there are, the longer Minseok has to promote in his sweltering burger costume. This must be what it feels like to be at the bottom of the food chain.

Minseok hasn’t spotted Lu Han yet, and he’s relieved because he’s not ready to face him after their date yesterday. Especially since he enjoyed it far more than he expected. Lu Han had pinched his cheeks adoringly with a soft whisper of _baozi_ and softly kissed them better, punching his number into Minseok’s phone, once he had walked him back to the dorm. Jongdae had laughed at Minseok’s blush when he stumbled in and threw himself face-down on his bed.

Trust him to start falling for a guy who probably had an axe stashed under his bed. Minseok still wasn’t letting go of the notion that Lu Han wanted to rip his throat out and eat his heart or something equally gruesome.

An hour later he hears faint music from KFC’s territory but he ignores it, too engrossed in handing out flyers to worry about what _they_ are up to. He definitely can't ignore the loud beat of banjos coming from speakers situated on the sidewalk though, not when Lu Han pops out of KFC in his chicken costume and a microphone in his hand.

Minseok definitely can't ignore Lu Han when he begins singing—he sounds so breathy and beautiful—a choir of KFC employees backing him.

He’s staring straight at Minseok as he persistently sings about not caring what people say when we’re together and he _doesn’t_ care when he gathers a crowd of curious onlookers. Minseok wants the ground to swallow him up when people realise that the Chicken Guy is serenading the Burger Guy and he wants to scream, “No! Can’t you see that it’s a promotion technique?”. It’s suddenly fifteen degrees hotter out and Lu Han’s singing about being on fire, making his way closer to Burger King. Minseok wants to run but his legs are rooted to the ground. He can see Lu Han’s eyelashes from here, and the latter finishes off the song with a “Be with me?”

Minseok’s all out of ideas to curb Lu Han’s straightforwardness so he grabs him and kisses him on the mouth, or at least tries to with their huge costumes obstructing them. He gets a mouthful of feathers instead when they tumble onto the pavement to the cheers of the crowd around them.

Lu Han leans over to kiss Minseok properly, and they stay like that before it gets too hot to breathe. He pulls them up. They bow together and some kid throws an orange. Minseok’s never felt happier.

-

“My manager said that my idea of the forbidden love story between the Chicken Guy and the Burger Guy totally boosted sales at KFC.”

“So it really was all a promotion technique?”

“Duh.”

Minseok smirks, “You know that just means the sales at Burger King have gone up as well.”

“Shit.”


End file.
